On May 11, comrades were arrested following the armed robbery of a Piraeus Bank branch in Kato Tithorea. Wanting to send a signal of solidarity, we torched 2 ATMs (Piraeus and Ethniki) on Ethniki Antistaseos street , in Kaisariani on the evening of Wednesday, July 8. Instead of dispensing money, the burnt ATMs sent smoke signals to the comrades in prison.
We do not intend to say many things in this text as the action is quite specific. The current events of the last few days and especially the absence of dialogue, at the movement level, has troubled us. We perceive ourselves as parts of the broader combative movement, a movement characterised by diversity in particular, which constitutes one of its fundamental characteristics. It is a matter of responsibility to share some thoughts. What matters is that the dialogue begins and not who begins it.
Meantime..
Over the last week, after the arson attacks in Thessaloniki, we have witnessed statements condemning “violence wherever it comes from” from the entire political system of the country. Government officials, members of parliament, ministers, and even the prime minister are making statements, on whatever channel hosts them, condemning “left-wing violence,” criminalising protest, ordering criminal charges, announcing “witch hunts,” likening fliers to incendiary devices, inceasing the occupation of a public building from a misdemeanor to a felony (even at the level of statements) and calling for an “extension” of the term “terrorist organisation.”
No one (except their audience) could claim that the New Democracy government is not an authoritarian government. It proves it on a daily basis, it proudly trumpets it on the channels, after all, it became a government with these “games”. On the occasion of the events of the previous week, it has been brought back to the centre of the political debate, which in view of the pre-election period is expected to intensify even more, the results of which potentially mean the criminalisation of our entire political space, of occupations and political action in general. How the political forces of the movement in Greece are going to resist this is a topic for another text. We, for our part, will remain on these lines in the political defence of revolutionary violence in general and arson as a means in particular.
Arson has historically been established as the pre-eminent weapon of society against the State, the Tyrant, the Aristocrat, the Shipowner, and Power in general. We as anarchists do not own it, nor would we want to, but we owe it to the Cause to politically defend the means with which we have chosen to fight. In this case, we see an attempt to denigrate the means by the legal political reality of the country with the aim of depoliticising revolutionary violence in general, using lame excuses. For example, “anarchists have connections with illegality, football hooligans, they sell drugs and make Molotov cocktails out of the profits” and other graphic nonsense. We also see this strategy in the case of the comrades who are being prosecuted for the armed robbery of a bank in Kato Tithorea and to whom we dedicate the action. We are tired of hearing Kaliakmanis and every other parasite talk about communicating vessels, about recruiters and recruits. We must put things in their place, as those prosecuted in the Kato Tithorea case tried to do, shouting Long Live Anarchy from inside the cage. It is therefore important to continue to present our reasoning, to analyze the reasons for each attack and, above all, to talk about the need for revolutionary movements to use violence to achieve their goals.
Let’s not deceive ourselves, violence is everywhere around us, in Palestine they eat violence for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The migrant concentration camps are violence, the shipwreck in Pilos was violence, the unyielding stance of the region towards the Refugee Camps, Aristos and Suzon is violence, the beatings in the demonstrations are violence, as well as the endless hours waiting in the accident and emergency of public hospitals. Rapes by all kinds of assholes are violence, as is the prosecutor’s proposal to acquit the rapists of the Omonia Police Station “due to doubt”. The crocodile tears of a decrepit Kyranakis (a Member of the Hellenic Parliament ) do not move us, the moralising by the murderers of the 57 people in Tempi supposedly about the worthlessness of our lives, is sickening. We have every right to resist the death that is being unleashed right and left. We have a social and historical duty to resist with all means, always at the corresponding cost. You cannot kill the tyrant if you do not get your hands dirty, in the end he must die. It is right because it is just and justice is found in the justice of the street, in the justice of those from below, that which, when a 15-year-old boy is murdered in Exarcheia by a cop’s bullet, sets fire to police stations and places incendiary devices in the homes of the political, judicial, police and military elite of the country. Because we must change sides of the fear they cause us daily. Because we are living in a war and even if we never win, we will always fight.
On the day of the action, OPKE police officers shoot a 20-year-old in the back of the head in Argos, after a chase; the 20-year-old remains brain dead from the head injuries. Words are unnecessary. The propaganda machine has kicked into gear: “he rammed a patrol car, he almost rammed police officers on foot”. A little scroll on social media and anyone can see what Greek society, or at least its conservative part, the “right-wing apartment building”, is saying about ELAS (general police ) and the 20-year-old. The hypocrisy knows no bounds. The evangelists of democratic life wish for the “liberation” of the police officers, for politicians to “untie their hands”, “for the state to stop tolerating gypsies”. The same people who were talking about “heinous crimes” and “blind violence”.This whole dystopian scenario we are describing is violence and we have every right to defend ourselves the way we choose and fire is quite accessible…
Fire is not just a means for the rebel, but a symbol of overthrowal because it is not content with collapse but imposes total destruction, it is not interested in the afterlife, but it gives the option to dream about it.
PS. On the day of the publication of the text, the Anti-Terrorism Service and the Directorate for Combating Organised Crime carried out almost simultaneous operations in Athens, Thessaloniki and Chania during which 5 comrades were arrested while a warrant has been issued for another person. The 2 in Athens were charged with the arson of Marfin bank in 2010 and the remaining 3 people with the arson attack on the house of Aphrodite Nestora, without the cases being related to each other. Terror hysteria is hitting your screens again and anonymous emails the email addresses of the GADA at the same time as a 20-year-old is brain dead from bullets to the head by cops. It may well be a series of diabolical coincidences that just happen to illustrate the modus operandi in communications of Mr. Michalis and his gang (Minister for Citizen Protection). Perhaps the Anti-Terrorist Party will call elections from now on, so that the prime minister doesn’t tire himself with proclamations. The comrades have our undivided solidarity. Let us stand as a barrier to the police pogroms against the anarchist and anti-authoritarian space.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE ANARCHISTS PERSECUTED FOR THE KATÓ TITHOREA CASE
SOLIDARITY WITH THE ARRESTED IN TODAY’S OPERATIONS IN THESSALONIKI, CHANIA AND ATHENS
BLOOD FLOWS, DEMANDING REVENGE
FIRES TO ALL CELLS
SOLIDARITY TO THE IMPRISONED ANARCHIST COMRADES MARIANNA AND DIMITRA
VICTORY TO THE REFUGEE STRUGGLE -PROSFIGIKA– SOLIDARITY TO ARISTOS AND SUZON
KYRIAKOS XYMITIRIS PRESENT
Anarchists
Translated by Act for freedom now!